Let’s Talk about Interracial Porn

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL TENSIONS surrounding issues of masculinity, race, violence, sexuality, and miscegenation commingle in both all-black and interracial pornography. Black men in gay porn customarily inhabit a position of power that has roots in racialized fetishism. To be blunt, black gay porn stars, when they are en- gaged in sex with white, Latino, or Asian costars, almost always perform as “tops,” the penetrative partner. Anatomically, these men possess athletic physiques, very dark skin, and penises that are much longer than the average five to seven inches most men’s penises measure when erect. Dwight McBride states:

In the all-black genre and in the blatino genre, black men are represented as “trade”: men with hard bodies and hard per- sonalities to match them, men from or tied to ghetto or street life in one way or another, men possessing exceptionally large penises … and, more often than not, men as sexual predators or aggressors.

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The Gay & Lesbian Review / Worldwide (The G&LR) is a bimonthly magazine targeting an educated readership of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) men and women. Under the tagline, “a bimonthly journal of history, culture, and politics,” The G&LR publishes essays in a wide range of disciplines as well as reviews of books, movies, and plays.